Images(2)

Wedding Couple

Date1983

Artist Eddie Arning (1898 - 1993)

OriginAmerica, Texas, Austin

MediumPastel on paper

Credit LineGift of Robert Cogswell and Betty Dornberger Cogswell

Object number2024.201.3

DescriptionResembling an open greeting card, the left portion shows an image of a man and woman in wedding clothes and on the right is an inscription that reads, "BETTADE / DORNBAG / ANDBOB / CODWELL/ MARiED/ JANUARY / 31 - 1967." The "greeting cards" is framed by black and red rectangles.
Label TextEddie Arning was born in Austin County, Texas, in 1898. As a teenager he worked on the family farm, but increasingly disturbing bouts with depression and withdrawal led his family to commit him to the state mental hospital. Arning remained in mental hospitals or nursing homes for the next forty-five years.

Encouraged by a hospital aide, in 1964 Arning began to color in books and then to draw freehand. His earliest drawings featured farm animals and inanimate objects remembered from childhood. Arning gradually introduced human figures that interacted with one another into his compositions.

While most of Arning's drawings derive from illustrations in popular magazines, this piece appears to be an orignial made as an anniversary present for his friends Robert and Betty Cogswell. The Cogswells played a pivotal role in Eddie's life and work, taking him to church on Sundays, buying him art supplies, and helping exhibit his works in various art shows around Austin.

ProvenanceEdding Arning [1898-1993] (Austin, TX); Robert and Betty Cogswell (Austin, TX); 2024, given to The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, VA)